Blogging the Buckeyes

Get Email Updates

Ohio State Headlines

Our Ohio State headlines email newsletter delivers Buckeyes athletics news from
The Dispatch. Sent weekday mornings and Saturday game days during football season. You'll
also be alerted when breaking news happens involving the Buckeyes.

Masahiro Tanaka was introduced by the New York Yankees yesterday after he
chartered a Boeing 787 Dreamliner for his trip from Tokyo to New York.

The 25-year-old right-hander agreed on Jan. 22 to a seven-year, $155 million contract and
stopped in New York for a news conference at Yankee Stadium on the way to the team’s spring
training complex in Tampa, Fla., where workouts start this weekend.

Tanaka put on his No. 19 jersey and, speaking in English, said “I’m very happy to be a
Yankee."

Tanaka charted a Japan Airlines plane, which seats about 200, for the trans-Pacific trip to New
York, reportedly costing about $200,000. There were just five passengers on the plane, including
his pop star wife,
Mai Satoda, plus their poodle, Haru.

“There wasn’t many choices of planes,” Tanaka said through a translator when asked about the
jet.

And a lengthy commercial trip could have been uncomfortable.

“I thought about my conditioning, just wanted to get here in the best condition possible,” he
said.

• Right-hander
Roy Oswalt is retiring after 13 major league seasons.

Oswalt, 36, had a 163-102 career record with a 3.36 ERA. His best season was with Houston in
2004, when he went 20-10 with a 3.49 ERA. A three-time All-Star and 2005 National League
championship series MVP, he pitched more than 200 innings seven times in his career but dealt with
injuries in recent years.

• Radio host and former St. Louis Cardinals player
Jack Clark has apologized for and retracted comments he made last year implying
that
Albert Pujols used steroids.

Pujols sued Clark for defamation in October after Clark made the comments in August. Clark said
then he knew that Pujols was “a juicer,” a term for a ballplayer who uses steroids or another
banned performance-enhancing drug.

Football

Porter back with Steelers as assistant coach

Former All-Pro linebacker
Joey Porter has rejoined the Pittsburgh Steelers as a defensive assistant coach.
Porter played 13 NFL seasons with Pittsburgh, Miami and Arizona and was a four-time All-Pro.

Golf

Floyd named assistant captain for U.S. Ryder team

Raymond Floyd is returning to the Ryder Cup as an assistant captain for the second
time in the past three matches.

U.S. captain
Tom Watson said that Floyd would be one of his assistants. The Ryder Cup will be
played Sept. 26-28 at Gleneagles, Scotland. The Americans have not won the cup since 2008 — Floyd
was an assistant on that team. They have not won on European soil since 1993.

Watson previously said
Andy North would be an assistant.

•
Steve Stricker is likely to miss the Match Play Championship next week because his
older brother is awaiting a liver transplant at home in Wisconsin.

Stricker said his 50-year-old brother,
Scott Stricker, has been in the hospital since Jan. 6 and was transferred to the
intensive care unit three weeks ago. Stricker said his brother has a history of health problems,
but took a sudden turn for the worse after the holidays.

If he were to miss the Match Play Championship that would mean four of the top 12 players in the
world ranking are not in the 64-man field at Dove Mountain.
Tiger Woods,
Adam Scott and
Phil Mickelson already have said they would not play.

Elsewhere

Avs defenseman suspended two games for slashing

Colorado Avalanche defenseman
Erik Johnson has been suspended by the NHL for two games without pay for slashing
New York Islanders forward
Frans Nielsen. The incident occurred in the third period of Colorado’s 5-2 win on
Saturday.

• The United States will face France at home in Fed Cup competition in an attempt to get back
into the World Group. The International Tennis Federation announced that the playoff will be held
April 19-20 at a venue to be determined.

•
Mauricio Sulaiman has been elected president of the World Boxing Council,
replacing his father who died last month.

Sulaiman, 44, was chosen unanimously in a vote by the leadership, the World Boxing Council said.
Sulaiman becomes the sixth president of the organization.

Jose Sulaiman, who died last month at 82, was the long-time head of the WBC. He
managed to institute new rules and regulations regarding boxers’ safety and welfare and was
considered a friend of his fighters.